Ars System Guide: Gaming Boxes, March 2013

I'm surprised at the expensive 27" monitor recommendation. But then again I think that a monitor is something rarely upgraded (every two or three computer build cycles) and best splurged on when it is done. No recommendation for the Microcenter Korean IPS display ($399 vs. ~$700?)

Korean displays have enough drawbacks that you really can't recommend them to someone unless they are willing to accept the risks. The panel itself is good (if a touch below the "normal" vendors) but the rest of the display is a big question mark when it comes to quality.

I'm surprised at the expensive 27" monitor recommendation. But then again I think that a monitor is something rarely upgraded (every two or three computer build cycles) and best splurged on when it is done. No recommendation for the Microcenter Korean IPS display ($399 vs. ~$700?)

Korean displays have enough drawbacks that you really can't recommend them to someone unless they are willing to accept the risks. The panel itself is good (if a touch below the "normal" vendors) but the rest of the display is a big question mark when it comes to quality.

My brother bought the Microcenter version. It has OSD and seems to be of decent (not good or excellent) build quality, but for the price... it can't be beat. I'm tentatively watching how it performs to see if I want to breakdown and get one too.

It also seems like there is a difference between a good gaming box and a godly gaming box. All the SLI configurations and huge monitors seem excessive. I'd like a solid performing rig with good graphics... Sweet spot style recommendations.

I've been holding off on an upgrade for a long time now, and based on the discussion in the thread I finally went out and bought some new hardware today:

MSI Z77A-G45

Intel Core i3-3240

2x4GB Corsair DDR3-1600

MSI Radeon HD7770

Samsung 840 Series 240GB SSD

Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD

Coolermaster HAF 922

Corsair CX430 v2

// Existing dual-head LCD setup

// Existing Logitech KB/M setup

I ended up getting the Radeon HD7770 because it's super-cheap right now. After rebate it's just $100 (plus tax), the best 660 OC price I could find is more than double that. The Coolermaster case wasn't my first choice, but the retailer that I went to just ran out of stock on the Antec P280. I was planning on getting the Crucial M4 256GB from the same retailer but they were also out of stock... the Samsung is a little bit cheaper and I probably won't notice the performance difference (if any).

It looks like the front panel USB on the Coolermaster case is only USB 2.0. This shouldn't be a problem since I'm only going to be connecting phones via that port. My LCDs are getting a little old but I'll see how they look with this setup. I still need speakers and a new DVDRW or BDRW but I can wait on those. This machine isn't so much a pure gaming rig as it is a home office PC with some gaming ability. Total cost today was around $1k (not including sales tax).

I think that if we are going to make a box that is more expensive than the Hot Rod and really gaming focused we should look into 3x 1920x1080 monitors. Its a way to distinguish this box from the HotRod. The midrange graphics cards are so good that it makes sense to consider 7850's in CrossFire or GTX 660's in SLI.

Another look at triple head gaming - not the best review (FPS based, we know that we have to take ATI FPS numbers in Xfire with a grain of salt). Over all they seemed fairly pleased with the performance of the 7850's in crossfire.

Depending on the three monitors chosen, the tech report article thinks they are cheaper.

Three 1080p monitors together are probably cheaper than a 27" 1440p monitor. Unfortunately, if you want the setup to work the best, that requires a mounting arm, and those aren't cheap. There's also the issue of the bezels between the screens to deal with.

It might be a good idea to do one or two SFF boxes as well, with the attention that Steam's Big Picture Mode has brought to HTPC gaming.

How small is SFF? Would an HTPC case be okay? I'm going to assume that a screen/speakers are not necessary for a HTPC/living room box, since it's, you know, going inside a home theater system.I'd want something like this case to fit in with the other living room boxes.An HTPC with that case for $1000 (plus free games for the inevitable Steam backlog!):

It might be a good idea to do one or two SFF boxes as well, with the attention that Steam's Big Picture Mode has brought to HTPC gaming.

How small is SFF? Would an HTPC case be okay? I'm going to assume that a screen/speakers are not necessary for a HTPC/living room box, since it's, you know, going inside a home theater system.I'd want something like this case to fit in with the other living room boxes.An HTPC with that case for $1000 (plus free games for the inevitable Steam backlog!):

In not too much longer one wont need a separate HTPC next to their TV. The office PC could use WHDI to use the TV as monitor. Who cares if the PC is a mid tower and makes average PC noises; it's in another room.

It might be a good idea to do one or two SFF boxes as well, with the attention that Steam's Big Picture Mode has brought to HTPC gaming.

How small is SFF? Would an HTPC case be okay? I'm going to assume that a screen/speakers are not necessary for a HTPC/living room box, since it's, you know, going inside a home theater system.I'd want something like this case to fit in with the other living room boxes.An HTPC with that case for $1000 (plus free games for the inevitable Steam backlog!):

Absolutely. XBox 360 Wireless Controller For Windows in essential IMO. The Play And Charge Kit too.

There are enough console ports out there that have poorly-thought through or just bad k&m control systems, which gets found out after a game is installed, that it's a very valuable fall-back to be able to just use the 360 control system.

Gamepad recommendations are either the Logitech F310 or the F710. Both are 360 controller compatible, so they work with modern games, and have a switch so they work like older Logitech gamepads for games that don't support XInput. The 710 is wireless, while the 310 is wired. You could get an official wired 360 controller from Microsoft, but the D-pad on it sucks compared the the ones on the Logitech pads.

As for use, I've found them useful for stuff that really doesn't need the precision of a mouse (platformers like Sonic Generations and Bionic Commando Rearmed immediately come to mind) and/or that use mashing of buttons that would probably wear down a regular keyboard (the hand-to-hand combat of WH40K: Space Marine and Sleeping Dogs, or straight-up fighters like Super Street Fighter IV).

I found this review of Tomb Raider to be very interesting. It talks about performance of of high end video cards (GTX 680 vs HD 7970) in SLI and crossfire on higher resolutions 1920x1080 and 2560x1600. They talk about Tessellation, TressFX, and Super Sampling AA and what the effects of eye candy on performance are. Seems very topical for our upper range gaming box.

Hmm, 2560x1600 with 2xSSAA for the GTX 680 SLI is too much, but then, they seem to prefer 1920x1080 4xSSAA for both 7970 CF and GTX680 SLI deeper in the article...

Quote:

r most enjoyable gameplay experiences were at 1920x1080 with 4X SSAA enabled on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 SLI and AMD Radeon HD 7970 CrossFire. A

That makes think maybe we do want all the GPU power we can get, and a step back to GTX 670 SLI might not be the best idea-- but then that article doesn't cover GTX 670 SLI, and TR is a new enough game I'm not sure I trust my inferences yet.

Hmm, 2560x1600 with 2xSSAA for the GTX 680 SLI is too much, but then, they seem to prefer 1920x1080 4xSSAA for both 7970 CF and GTX680 SLI deeper in the article...

Quote:

r most enjoyable gameplay experiences were at 1920x1080 with 4X SSAA enabled on the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 SLI and AMD Radeon HD 7970 CrossFire. A

That makes think maybe we do want all the GPU power we can get, and a step back to GTX 670 SLI might not be the best idea-- but then that article doesn't cover GTX 670 SLI, and TR is a new enough game I'm not sure I trust my inferences yet.

The article doesn't, but the AMD document included in the article does: average FPS at 2560x1600 on Ultimate is 45 for 680 SLI vs 41 for 670 SLI. Whether that translates to 1920x1080...

The article doesn't, but the AMD document included in the article does: average FPS at 2560x1600 on Ultimate is 45 for 680 SLI vs 41 for 670 SLI. Whether that translates to 1920x1080...

The ratio you see there holds true pretty much across all benchmarks--the 670 gets 90% of the 680's performance, but for 75% of the price. I think a 670 is the best bet for a devout Nvidia follower, while the 7970 is a better choice for those willing to use AMD, assuming equal costs (which seems to becoming less true--I see stock cooler 670s for around $350 or lower pretty commonly, while 7970s seem to have settled at just over or under $400.) I'd rather be able to fit in a good set of headphones and/or a good keyboard than get that last 10% of frames, since the difference between 40 and 45 is virtually indistiguishable (and if frames scale inversely with pixels exactly, you'd get over 60 frames per second with both 670s and 680s in SLI).

HD 7790 Reviews are up. (More reviews listed here.) 7790's should be widely available April 2; the 1GB HD 7850 is going out of production (2 GB will still be available); the 7790 is a very able competitor to the GTX 650 Ti/ GTX 560. Perhaps the 7790 should be considered for the more modest gaming box. TechReport tested the card on Tomb Raider - they had to turn TressFX off (no big surprise).

HD 7790 Reviews are up. (More reviews listed here.) 7790's should be widely available April 2; the 1GB HD 7850 is going out of production (2 GB will still be available); the 7790 is a very able competitor to the GTX 650 Ti/ GTX 560. Perhaps the 7790 should be considered for the more modest gaming box. TechReport tested the card on Tomb Raider - they had to turn TressFX off (no big surprise).

Good lord AMD is getting confusing. When I saw 7790, I thought "why did AMD Crossfire two 7770's on to one card?"

That's not the confusing part. The confusing part is that they've already "launched" the Radeon 8000 series for OEMs, with at one new chip (the 6 CU Oland) and a bunch of rebrands. Other than that silliness, AMDs branding at least makes sorta sense, with the 7700 series being 128bit bus, 7800 256bit and 7900 384bit.

Anyway: 7790 is 14 CU, splitting the difference between 10 CU 7770 and 16 CU 7850, and boosts the memory clock to compensate for the narrow bus, much like nVidia does. The 7790 makes sense in the short run, but 1 GB is not going to be enough for long with the new consoles launching with 8 GB RAM.